GOP legislatures in some states seek ways to undermine voters' ability to determine abortion rights

CHRISTINE FERNANDO
Sun, January 28, 2024 

CHICAGO (AP) — Legislative efforts in Missouri and Mississippi are attempting to prevent voters from having a say over abortion rights, building on anti-abortion strategies seen in other states, including last year in Ohio.

Democrats and abortion rights advocates say the efforts are evidence that Republican lawmakers and abortion opponents are trying to undercut democratic processes meant to give voters a direct role in forming state laws.

“They’re scared of the people and their voices, so their response is to prevent their voices from being heard," said Laurie Bertram Roberts, executive director of Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund. “There’s nothing democratic about that, and it’s the same blueprint we’ve seen in Ohio and all these other states, again and again.”

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, voters in seven states have either protected abortion rights or defeated attempts to curtail them in statewide votes. Democrats have pledged to make the issue a central campaign topic this year for races up and down the ballot.

A proposal passed Wednesday by the Mississippi House would ban residents from placing abortion initiatives on the statewide ballot. Mississippi has among the toughest abortion restrictions in the country, with the procedure banned except to save the life of the woman or in cases of rape or incest.

In response to the bill, Democratic Rep. Cheikh Taylor said direct democracy “shouldn’t include terms and conditions.”

“Don’t let anyone tell you this is just about abortion,” Taylor said. “This is about a Republican Party who thinks they know what’s best for you better than you know what’s best for you. This is about control. So much for liberty and limited government.”

The resolution is an attempt to revive a ballot initiative process in Mississippi, which has been without one since 2021 when the state Supreme Court ruled that the process was invalid because it required people to gather signatures from the state’s five previous U.S. House districts. Mississippi dropped to four districts after the 2000 census, but the initiative language was never updated.

Republican Rep. Fred Shanks said House Republicans would not have approved the resolution, which will soon head to the Senate, without the abortion exemption. Some House Republicans said voters should not be allowed to vote on changing abortion laws because Mississippi originated the legal case that overturned Roe v. Wade.

“It took 50 years … to overturn Roe v. Wade,” said Mississippi House Speaker Jason White, a Republican. “We weren’t going to let it just be thrown out the window by folks coming in from out of state, spending 50 million bucks and running an initiative through.”

But Mississippi Democrats and abortion access organizations panned the exemption as limiting the voice of the people.

“This is an extremely undemocratic way to harm access to reproductive health care," said Sofia Tomov, operations coordinator with Access Reproductive Care Southeast, a member of the Mississippi Abortion Access Coalition. "It’s infringing on people’s ability to participate in the democratic process.”

In Missouri, one of several states where an abortion rights initiative could go before voters in the fall, a plan supported by anti-abortion groups would require initiatives to win a majority vote in five of the state’s eight congressional districts, in addition to a simple statewide majority.

The proposal comes days after a Missouri abortion-rights campaign launched its ballot measure effort aiming to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution. Missouri abortion rights groups also have criticized Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, saying he is attempting to impede the initiative by manipulating the measure's ballot summary. A Missouri appeals court recently found the summaries were politically partisan and misleading.

When asked during a recent committee hearing if the GOP proposal was an attempt to get rid of direct democracy, Republican state Rep. Ed Lewis said “I think that our founding fathers were about as fearful of direct democracy as we should be. That’s why they created a republic.”

Sam Lee, lobbyist for Campaign Life Missouri, testified on Tuesday for the need for provisions like this that make sure “the rights of the minority aren’t trampled on.”

“The concern of our founders, and the concern of many people throughout the decades and years, is to avoid having a tyranny of the majority,” he said.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo said controlling who can vote and on what subjects has been “the highest priority of the Republican Party for the last 20 years."

“This is how democracies die,” he said in an interview. “We are watching it in real time. This is the scariest moment that I’ve seen in my lifetime.”

Democratic Rep. Joe Adams criticized the plan in part by alleging that the state's congressional and legislative districts are gerrymandered to favor Republicans. That would make it nearly impossible for an abortion measure to be approved under the proposed legislation.

Attempts to keep abortion measures off the ballot in Missouri and Mississippi follow a similar blueprint in other states to target the ballot initiative process, a form of direct democracy available to voters in only about half the states.

Florida’s Republican attorney general has asked the state Supreme Court to keep a proposed abortion rights amendment off the ballot as an abortion-rights coalition this month reached the necessary number of signatures to qualify it for the 2024 ballot.

In Nevada, a judge on Tuesday approved an abortion-rights ballot measure petition as eligible for signature-gathering, striking down a legal challenge by anti-abortion groups attempting to prevent the question from going before voters.

Ohio abortion rights advocates have said last year’s statewide vote to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution was as much about abortion as it was a referendum on democracy itself. They said Republicans tried to obstruct the democratic process before the vote and attempted to ignore the will of voters after the amendment passed.

Ohio Republicans called a special election in August attempting to raise the threshold for passing future constitutional amendments from a simple majority to 60%. That effort was defeated at the polls and was widely seen as aiming to undermine the abortion amendment.

After Ohio voters approved the abortion protections last year, Republican lawmakers pledged to block the amendment from reversing the state's restrictions. Some proposed preventing Ohio courts from interpreting any cases related to the amendment.

“It wasn’t just about abortion," Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer of the ACLU, said last fall after the Ohio amendment passed. "It’s about, ‘Will the majority be heard?’"

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Associated Press writers Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Missouri, and Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed to this report.

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‘Rage’ abortion donations dry up, leaving funds struggling to meet demand

Nathaniel Weixel
Sun, January 28, 2024 



Abortion funds that help people cover the costs of getting the procedure are struggling with money as the waves of donations that followed the end of Roe v. Wade have begun to dry up.

It’s led some of the independent organizations — which help cover expenses for abortions and associated costs, such as transportation, child care, and lodging — to scale back or even pause operations.

After the Dobbs decision in June 2022, many funds received large donations from Americans outraged at seeing the right to an abortion stripped away.


The National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF), which comprises 100 funds across the country, said its members disbursed close to $37 million to about 103,000 people from July 1, 2022, to June 30. That was an 88 percent increase in spending compared to the year before.

People giving money were so angry at the time that the gifts were described as “rage” donations.

But as the issue has faded from headlines, donations have too, even as demand for help and the costs for helping individual people have skyrocketed.

“We noticed with any sort of moment that happens, whether it is a certain election, an introduction of an abortion ban, or in this case, the overturning of Roe, there is this immediate desire to like, make a contribution to abortion funds or make contributions to the movement,” said Oriaku Njoku, NNAF’s executive director.

“While we appreciate the rage, giving what is actually required to make sure that people can consistently get the care they need is that long-term investment in abortion funds,” Njoku said.

When the Dobbs decision first leaked out, “money was thrown. People went into a panic and dollars were just raining,” said Chasity Wilson, executive director of the Louisiana Abortion Fund.

“Everyone was very mad, because it was in the headlines. It was national, all throughout the U.S. Things were changing pretty rapidly for people. So people were of course mad and they were giving a lot,” said Bree Wallace, director of case management at the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund. “And then a few months after that, it kind of died off.”

The large influx of donations changed how funds operated. Some were pushing money out the door to vastly expand the number of people they could aid. Others tried to save the extra money to boost their budgets long-term.

Wallace estimated the fund spent about $700,000 in 2023, but “we definitely couldn’t do that again this year.”

Donations dropped 63 percent from 2022 to 2023, Wallace said. The fund was previously able to help people across Florida but now is limited to people coming into or out of the Tampa area.

Wilson said individual donors are still keeping the Louisiana fund operational, but she added foundations and philanthropies have noticeably pulled back — a common refrain from funds in the South.

Almost every fund contacted by the Hill said they have seen a decrease in donations at a time when access to abortion care is much more expensive than it used to be. When abortion was still legal, abortion funds were mostly needed to help people drive to local clinics and cover the cost of the procedure.

For funds in the Deep South, the options for sending someone to an in-state clinic were extremely limited, so people had to travel out-of-state frequently.

But now abortion is banned or restricted in more than 21 states across the country, meaning people often must travel much further than before, and navigate an ever-changing landscape of local restrictions.

On top of the travel, abortions also cost more. A medical abortion using pills costs up to $200 more than it used to, according to Kenny Callaway, a health-line coordinator for the abortion fund ARC Southeast, which serves people in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

The same amount of money doesn’t go nearly as far as it used to.

“There was a there was a time when we were helping like 20 people a week. Now we’re doing good to help two or three,” said Laurie Bertram Roberts, co-founder of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund. “We’ve been doing this for 10 years. In a lot of ways it feels like going backwards in our capacity.”

Before Dobbs, Mississippi only had one abortion clinic in the state. Bertram Roberts said the fund spent between $200 to $600 on average per caller. But now, the fund needs to spend between $1000 to $1500 just for people who need an abortion before 12 weeks’ gestation. If they are further along, the costs are significantly higher.

Most people in the state are making a 10-hour drive to Carbondale, Ill., a two-day trip that requires money for food, gas, and lodging.

“No disrespect to the rage givers. They enabled us to get a lot of people seen before Roe fell. Thing is, is that now we have these harder, higher standards to reach to get people to care. And we have less investment,” Bertram Roberts said.

Her organization stopped giving out funds for four months and only reopened at the beginning of January.

“It feels horrible. It feels gross. It feels like you’re letting people down, because you are. It puts you in a position to be like the gatekeeper of people getting access to care. And nobody wants to be that,” Bertram Roberts said.

When abortion was legal, it was not uncommon for funds to pause operations if they ran over their monthly budgets. But fund officials said there’s a ripple effect now, because when one fund closes or pauses, others step in to help.

“That is the reality for organizations like this. We do run out of funds and there are some people we cannot support,” said Callaway.




Abortion expansion or abolition? What 51 years of Roe v. Wade means today

Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY
Updated Sat, January 27, 2024 

The White House marked the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade this week by rolling out expanded access to contraception and steps to inform pregnant patients about their abortion options during life-threatening emergencies. The measures were another sign that President Joe Biden will place reproductive rights at the center of his reelection campaign.

The landmark 1973 case has become even more politically potent since it was overturned by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority in its explosive 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Sins the Dobbs decision, 14 states have completely banned abortion, including Alabama, Mississippi, and South Dakota, while swath of others in the southeast have also enacted early-term bans ranging from six to 18 weeks of pregnancy. Other states have moved to protect abortion access, including Ohio, which voted in a November referendum to include the right to an abortion in the state constitution.
Roe is dead, and still powerful

And 2024 is set to include more decisive moments as abortion hits the polls in states like Maryland and New York, where voters will weigh state constitutional amendments enshrining reproductive rights. Meanwhile, a major decision from the Supreme Court is expected regarding mifepristone, the FDA-approved pill that accounts for more than half of all abortions in the United States.

"Roe is now shorthand for what has been lost," said Joshua Prager, author of "The Family Roe," a history of the legal case. "That is a very powerful thing."

Related: Election lessons: Abortion delivers for Democrats from Ohio to Virginia to Kentucky
Making abortion 'unthinkable'

Amid this complex landscape, voices on both the anti-abortion and abortion rights camps told USA TODAY they share the goal of never returning to Roe − for vastly different reasons.

The anti-abortion side wants complete, total elimination of abortion to the point it is “unthinkable,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, an annual gathering in Washington that drew thousands of anti-abortion supporters last week.

“While the Dobbs decision is a huge victory and milestone in building a culture of life there is much more work to be done,” Mancini said.

More: Abortion restrictions repel graduating OB-GYNs from conservative states, report shows

Anti-abortion activists march and rally in front of the United States Supreme Court during the annual March for Life in Washington on January 19, 2024.
Roe was inadequate, activists say

Meanwhile, some abortion rights advocates believe the moment should be for revision, rather than reversion, back to Roe. This means legalizing abortion nationally, and protecting access, especially for members of marginalized groups who struggled to access abortion services even under Roe, said Serra Sippel of The Brigid Alliance, which supports patients traveling to seek abortion care.

It's vital “we don't make the mistake of reinforcing what was there," Sippel said. "That's a 51-year-old decision.”

For abortion rights supporters, Roe should be "the floor, not the ceiling," Sippel said, meaning that the decision was not only too vulnerable to being overturned but also limited in its power to assure equity in abortion access.

Compare this sentiment with the stance of President Joe Biden, who stood in front a banner with the words “Restore Roe” at a campaign event in Virginia on Tuesday, where he castigated his predecessor, Donald Trump, for dismantling the protections previously guaranteed by Roe.

More: Indigenous women, facing tougher abortion restrictions post-Roe, want Congress to step in

President Joe Biden arrives to speak during a Democratic National Committee event at the Howard Theatre, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ORG XMIT: DCEV401
Joe Biden expands access to contraception

Biden’s rally came on the tails of his announcement Monday that the White House was expanding coverage for no-cost contraception through the Affordable Care Act. Federal employees will also receive greater access to contraception under guidelines issued to insurers.

The Health and Human Services Department is rolling out a plan to educate patients about the administration's position that they are entitled to care for pregnancy-related emergences − including abortion care in some cases − under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.

Democrats have been increasingly successful in talking about abortion rights, said Jessica Valenti, a feminist writer and founder of "Abortion, Every Day," which tracks national and state-level changes in abortion laws. Valenti spoke to Senate Democrats at a briefing on abortion rights last week and said she felt “hopeful” after leaving the room.

Democrats, Valenti said, "need to get out of a defensive crouch. It can’t be ‘We just want to go back to way things were.’”

Donald Trump appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court during his four years in office, including Amy Coney Barrett. They were part of the five-vote majority that overturned Roe v Wade.
Trump dances around abortion

Whether conservatives, in their effort for total abolition of abortion, will gain a key ally in the White House will be decided in less than 10 months.

While former president Donald Trump appointed three of the five Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe, the GOP frontrunner has been largely mute on the issue, giving subtle and nonspecific answers on whether he would push for a national abortin ban if he beats Biden in November.

"He is strategically and deliberately feigning moderation," Valenti said. "He is hoping people who are horrified by the end of Roe ... that they won't attach him to that and think that he will make things worse. That's just not true. Things could get much worse under a Trump presidency."

More: SCOTUS' leaked Roe v. Wade opinion led to near tenfold increase in abortion pill demand, study shows
A 19th century obscenity law could target abortion pills

If Trump returns to the White House, he could order the Department of Justice to use the Comstock Act, an obscenity law from the 1800s, to ban shipments of not only abortion medication, but medical equipment used for abortion or even clinic supplies, Valenti said. The Biden administration has already ruled that sending abortion pills via mail doesn’t violate the act, but a new administration could interpret the law differently.

January 19, 2024: In a snow storm anti-abortion activists march and rally in front of the U.S. Capitol during the annual March for Life in Washington on January 19, 2024. The event ended at the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Politically it's clear we need something more protective," Valenti said.

But she also remarked that many Americans may feel stranded between forceful advocates for unrestricted access and those working toward complete abolition.

For people in the middle, Valenti said, it’s important to consider who they trust to make a major decision about their lives: "At the heart of the matter is, do you think that this is a decision that the government should be involved in or not?”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What 51 years of Roe v. Wade means today